A bird’s eye on SARS-CoV-2 cases arround the world.
Pin height represents magnitud of confirmed cases by country, .
Source: Own estimation based on offical WHO data compiled by Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Novel Corona Virus 2019.
The US data represents 32.2% of the total world’s cases, (April 25st, 2020) so it was removed from representation, to avoid overfitting.
The Latin American context
Source: Own estimation based on Dirección General de Epidemiología, oficial Mexican Government data.
Brazil is the more affected country in the Latin American region by April 10th. Triplicating the number of cases that its predecessor Chile reports. What kind of measures are these countries implementing? Are this countries appliying the same preventive controls? such as social distancing, border closings, mobillity restictions? The different control approaches may provide clues to better undestend the virus spread rate.
Source: Own estimation based on Dirección General de Epidemiología, oficial Mexican Government data.
While, absolute measures show important patterns, the only provide one side of the contagion process. We need relative inicators to control for population size in each area.
Are there any significant differences between patient´s age distribution between states?
Source: Own estimation based on Dirección General de Epidemiología, oficial Mexican Government data.
The patient mean age is 41 years old, although no significant diferences across gender are found at this moment 2020-04-21, with an average age of 41 years for the Female population and 42 for Males.
We find that more Males than females are being infected. 58% vs 42% with 4 023 Females while 5 478 Males are reported since the first case was documented in the country, February the 28th, 2020.
Given the highly infectious nature of the virus and the labor market dynamics, a social determinant linked to a greater mobility for males, provides a research area that requires a formal empirical validation.
Age Distribution for covid19 deaths in Mexico.
Source: Own estimation based on Dirección General de Epidemiología, oficial Mexican Government data.
The t test estimation identifies specific average patient age across states. Althought not all states exhibit a statistical diffence, we can observe an important fact, covid19 is mainly affecting productive age population in a range from 38 years old to 53. The spread of the CI’s indicates impacts in an important share of young population in somestates, including Aguascalientes, San Luis Potosí, and Baja California Sur.
Is the Covid19 growth curve flattening yet? Evidence from Mexico.
Source: Own estimation based on Dirección General de Epidemiología, oficial Mexican Government data.
With a 734% growth in 46 days, and a lethality of 6.47% of the cases, it seems like Mexico is no where near controling the pandemic at the country level. However taking a look at daily growth rates indicate a rather less critic scenario, with signs of a drecreasing trend, that allready reached it’s peak at March 13th.
Daily growth rates for covid19 cases reported in Mexico.
Source: Own estimation based on Dirección General de Epidemiología, oficial Mexican Government data.
The pattern suggests a slowing trend with an average daily growth rate of 16.1% considering the 46 days since the first case reported in the country. In addition, we can see an important lag in the public health authority’s reaction with a health emergency declaration made 17 days after the country’s covid19 cases reached its peak daily growth rate.
What can be learned from Lethality rates at the state level?
Source: Own estimation based on Dirección General de Epidemiología, oficial Mexican Government data.
Mexico Incidence Rates by State.
It is found that CDMX exhibits the highests rate with 44 Males per 100 000 population with an aveage of 5. The lowest is found in females from Chiapas with 1 person.
Source: Own estimation based on Mexican Government official Open data.
It is found that CDMX exhibits the highests rate. The lowest is found in females from Chiapas.
Note: Estimates considers reported testing results as the target population for suspected COVID19 patients. The rate takes into account the proportion of positive cases to the total target population. Rates integrate the age and sex structure for standard population based on CONAPO 2020 official population estimates.
Outbreak curves: Mexico’s Northern Border States.
Source: Own estimation based on oficial Mexican Government data Dirección General de Epidemiología.
The covid19 confirmed cases path for the border states is showing a clear indication of different results of local containment measures for the spread of the virus. While, during the initial outbreak, Nuevo León (a state that host Monterrey, the third largest Metropolitan area in the country) had been the main focus of contagion at the border, the pattern dramatically changed by April 5th, when Baja California take off.
What kind of measures are working in Nuevo León, a state that appears to have flatten the curve, what lessons can be learned from this state´s public health control efforts. And more importantly, what factors are driving Baja California as a rapid growth area.
The 100th cases threshold.
Northern border states
Source: Own estimation based on Dirección General de Epidemiología, oficial Mexican Government data.
Baja California was the first border state to reach the 100th case threshold, which occurred on April 06 2020.
Two days latter, the number of cases has doubled to 225.
Spatial distribution for confirmed cases at the Municipal scales.
Interactive Map: Activate the US-Mexico Border, Sonora, Arizona, or World layer below, to display data accordingly
Source: Own estimation based on datos abiertos.Dirección General de Epidemiología, oficial Mexican Government data. World and USA data compiled by Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Novel Corona Virus 2019 Dataset.Note: Daily Updated data.
Data source Warning: There are important differences in the number of cases reported by health authorities, particularly between the state level and the federal Goverment sources. The latter providing lower figures. See for example Sonora state, which is reportig 88 cases for 13/04/2020, while the oficial data base reports 72 cases for the same date.
US MX Border States: Relationship between confirmed cases and deaths reported.
Mexico
Source: Own estimation based on oficial Mexican Government Open data (OD).
US
Source: US data WHO offical data compiled by Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Novel Corona Virus 2019 Dataset.
The Road Map to easing restrictions: Are we ready to lift the restrictions yet?
- Are there any covid19 free areas at the US Mexico border?
- Where are the spreading hotspots.
April 21st,
The spatial distibution of the cases in the covid19 affected counties is far from homegeneous, and only 3 border counties concentrate 75.5% of the cases.
Source: US data WHO offical data compiled by Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Novel Corona Virus 2019 Dataset.
A note on the goverment strategy to measure the covid19 outbreak in México. Data coverup or lack or Coordination among Federal and State health authorities?
As the covid19 outbreak developed in the country, public health authorities in Mexico, establish a mechanism for information sharing. The main source was the daily press communication (CT), which contained a count of confirmed cases, by age and sex. Beginning April 13th, the Federal government implemented a new public data (OD) sharing strategy. During a six-day period between April 13 and April the 18th the government published simultaneously both official sources of information.
The graph below determines differences in the number of cases reported by state in both official data bases. The accuracy gap is identified and classified as either under reporting or an over reporting state.
Source: Own estimation based on oficial Mexican Government Open data (OD) and daily technical communication CT.
During the referred period we found that on average 29.16% of the states in the country contained under classified data. This differences accounted to 349 covir19 cases not reported in the (OD) official source.
Furthermore, there is evidence of even larger differences when we consider the state reports vs. the Federal government official reports (OD). This is particularly evident at US-MX border Municipalities. Considering for Example the Sonoran border Municipality of San Luis rio Colorado, we found that the state is reporting 89 cases for April the 22nd, whereas the federal government via the official data mechanism designed (ODB), reports just 51 cases, an under report by 42%
From April 18th the OD, became the only official data government source…
A coordination issue? Evidence from the offical data bases accuracy gap.
Review case: Sonora.
Modeling the outbreak path for confirmed cases México.
Given the available information on the trajectory of the cases, we may expect to reach 32 286 cases by May the 10th, with a lower bound of 27 791, and upper limit at: 39 109 as the worst-case scenario. It would all depend on, among other factors the measures implemented by health authorities in each state and also the growth rate on the US.
References:
Data set compilation by Gabriel Alfonso Carranco-Sapiéns, Physics undergrad at the Science School and associate student at the Physics Institute of the National Autonomous Univesity of Mexico (UNAM)), base on official data from daily technical press reports. Github repository.